Groupon and T-Mobile National Scam

Today's Groupon scam is the National Deal:

Get a 32GB iPad for £49 (Worth up to £229) when you sign a 24 month Data Contract with T-Mobile (£27 per month)

With so much Fine Print, you would think people would understand this is a terrible deal. But yet 304 people have already purchased. Not very smart...

The following are the problems with this iPad Groupon National Deal:

1. This is a First Generation iPad. Second Generation iPads are being released this week. So the value of these First Generation iPads is going to drop significantly. So the value of £229 is exaggerated.

2. You have to sign a 24 month contract with T-Mobile at £27 per month. That's £648 in 2 years you will be spending on internet access. While £27/month on internet access may sound like an okay deal, there are a lot of restrictions on this internet access.

'This plan comes with a mobile internet fair use policy of 1GB a month to use anytime and 1GB a month to use between midnight and 10AM each day.'

For those who are unaware: 1GB of internet is not much. Most people would use 1GB in a week or less. So after your first week of the month, you have to stay up until midnight to use your internet. And even that 1GB will only last you another week. So that's 2 weeks of using the internet (1 week in the middle of the night) and you can't use it again for the rest of the month. All for a whopping £27 a month!

Do T-Mobile actually charge £27/month for 2GB internet usage (1GB of that to be used in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT)? Doesn't sound like their regular pricing to me.

3. If you're not worried about using up 2GB of mobile internet because you have wireless internet, get worried! Aside from the fact that your W-Fi contract is costing you additonal £ each month, T-Mobile has these iPads restricted so you can only use 3GB of Wi-Fi per month.

'You also have a W-Fi fair use policy of 3GB a month. We'll monitor how much you send a receive each calendar month so that we can protect our network for all our customers.'

Firstly, I don't like anyone monitoring my internet usage. Second, how does T-Mobile monitoring how much internet you use at your own home protect the network? Certainly using over 3GB/month does not mean you're doing anything illegal. Its not going to slow down the network. It just makes more money for them, from customers who are willing to pay to modify their contract to get more internet usage.

4. If you still think this is a good deal. (You're crazy...) But there are more restrictions coming. If you purchase the iPad for £49, you then have to redeem the voucher between March 18th and March 31st. Big deal? Well yes, because you have to pass a credit check and sign the 24 month contract.

The terms of this deal mean that most people buying it probably don't have excellent credit. Afterall, you are paying out more than £700 over the course of 2 years to get an iPad. You could buy an iPad for £229 on your credit card, payment spread out over 24 months is less than £15/ month with interest. So the people purchasing this deal probably don't have excellent credit.

Do you get your money back from Groupon if you don't have good credit and can't get the contract? We're not sure... but after 7 days probably not. You also probably won't be able to get through to Groupon within 7 days anyway to get a refund. But again Groupon keep the money from all unredeemed vouchers. At £49 per person (most of whom probably have very bad credit and won't be able to get a T-Mobile contract) that's a lot of money for Groupon.

5. Lastly, they advise you to have your credit/debit card handy when you call T-Mobile, so you can pay for shipping. Shipping?!? On top of all this money? I don't know how much shipping would be. I have written to Groupon, but surprise, surprise. No response.